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How My Party Found God
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Tami Chappell/Reuters
Liberals have practiced secular politics since the 1960s, but with the ascent of Barack Obama, the left discovered it can actually keep the faith.
When I was a high school kid in 1969, my church youth group leader took a bunch of us to Berkeley in the aftermath of the People’s Park uprising so we could soak in the café scene and experience some of what he was witnessing as a young seminarian at the Pacific School of Religion. The rigid establishment was being overthrown – in politics and the church – and something new in activism was being caffeinated. It would be a long time before that bundle of hormones would sit still again for Bible study.
The real measure of how Democrats succeeded in reaching out to the devout is located in the margins.
For the progressive left, social activism grounded in faith and theology crested in the 1960s. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was maybe the high water mark – a Biblical-based sermon addressed from one black preacher to a group of his white, Southern peers, calling for a radical transformation of perspective on the main social issue of the day.
That history needs to be remembered because faith-based social activism on the left largely disappeared for a generation in the aftermath of the 1960s. Various movements flowered – the antiwar, feminist, and environmental movements – and the action in the streets helped stimulate enormous social change. But organized religion – in the Catholic and mainstream Protestant denominations – began its slow, steady decline in the midst of the social turmoil.
For me, and maybe for many religious kids of the ‘60s, the church lost relevance the more it became a surrogate in the movement for social and political change. Why go to church to learn how to seize political power and change the established order? The more the debates in the pews became secular and political, the more the congregation left the sanctuary in order to put belief into practice.
The result was a long dormancy in which many Democrats became uncomfortable with open expressions of faith. Conservatives became the ones who invoked God and the Bible in the name of their narrow social-political agenda. Their majority was moral and their coalitions Christian and they married faith and political activism in the tradition we now call “wedge politics.”
The liberal faithful fled the scene in favor of latte and Tim Russert on Sunday mornings. Organized expressions of faith were rare at Democratic party gatherings. When I worked at the White House in the mid-1990s, I would not have dreamed of sharing my beliefs on faith with my colleagues. Our prayer and spiritual life was furtive even though we were all drawing on it to make it through rough and trying days. I sat next to George Stephanopoulos for a whole year on the campaign trail in 1996 and never discussed the moral turmoil he writes about in his book, All Too Human. More than once, I inadvertently interrupted Rahm Emanuel’s weekly session with his rabbi as they studied the Torah (yes, that Rahm Emanuel), but it never occurred to me to pull up a seat and join in the conversation.
All that is changing now. In Barack Obama, Democrats have put forth a man of strong religious faith who is comfortable connecting his spiritual life to his public role as a policymaker. Obama’s campaign benefited from a determined effort – which started during the 2004 campaign and accelerated since – to reach out to communities of faith and let them know that Democrats are their brothers and sisters.
Measuring the political impact of this faith outreach is tricky. It is still true that the more religious Americans who vote are more likely to be Republican and conservative. And it is still true that for most evangelical Christian voters, Democrats are off limits because their leadership does not believe that abortion is an unlawful taking of an innocent human life and that homosexuality is not a sin.
But the real measure of how Democrats succeeded in reaching out to the devout is located in the margins. Indiana is not a state that a Democrat could have carried without connecting in an authentic way to deeply religious voters. In places where Democrats organized real outreach to mainstream Protestant and Catholic congregations, the share of Obama’s vote went up compared to the percentage John Kerry won in 2004.
Connecting to religious people was pretty simple. More than three-fourths of all voters describe themselves as religious, and they are easily interested in how a candidate talks about his or her spiritual life and what it means as they think about the big issues of the day. During the primary season, various forums allowed candidates like Obama, Hillary Clinton, and others to profess their Christian faith and witness to the ways they are called to fulfill scriptural mandates to care for “the least, the last, and the lost.” None of the witnesses those candidates gave was phony: all of them, especially the new president-elect, seemed genuine in describing what the gospel news of Jesus requires them to do as humble servants of God.
So where does this all aim once we inaugurate our new president? For starters, President Obama will need to fulfill promises he made to care about those who suffer at home and around the world. The media and conventional pundits may not know that Obama pledged to end childhood hunger in America by 2015 but a lot of religious people will remember. Those who have volunteered as missions to the poor in developing lands will remember Obama’s promise to double foreign assistance. Those who believe that humankind is uniquely endowed by a Creator God to be stewards of that creation will watch very carefully to see what the new administration does to meet pledges on global climate change. And probably most important: all faith communities believe that war is a violence against God’s promise of shalom and ending the violence of war in favor of the diplomacy of peace will be a critical measure.
Many Democrats are rediscovering the connections that exist between the moral teachings of religion and the things we must do to create a community of the common good here in America. Our nation is entering hard, troubled, and painful times. It’s not a bad thing that the Democrats who are about to inherit positions of power have had a Great Awakening about how their own personal faith speaks to the needs of a dispirited nation in need of a big lift.
Mike McCurry was press secretary to President Bill Clinton 1995-98 and is now a Washington-based communications consultant and a graduate student at Wesley Theological Seminary.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Amateur Hour at the White House
Leslie H. Gelb, a former New York Times columnist and senior government official, is author of Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy (HarperCollins 2009), a book that shows how to think about and use power in the 21st century. He is president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Going Rogue: The Index
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
And probably most important: all faith communities believe that war is a violence against God's promise of shalom and ending the violence of war in favor of the diplomacy of peace will be a critical measure.
Pardon me, but what god do you have in mind? The OT god could not sleep well if he had not slaughtered a few thousand before breakfast and th NT god claims to come not to bring peace but a wedge( parents against children and the like).
What religious followers are you refering to, the ones who cheered the invasion of Iraq and condemed the Germans and French to hell for not supporting the invasion(germany and France, both very secular nations)
Please keep you myths out of my goverment
Lovely inspiring piece. As the Salvationists used to say, accused of having brass bands that played "godless" music, why should the devil have all the best tunes?
Excellent piece. Somebody noticed. Ennobling, Inspiring, Leading, and setting the example are everything that power is about. The Bully Pulpit, in a kinder gentler application. This is good stuff. But being as we are, at our core, "God's New Israel" (I'll let someone look that book up ... at the Library, or google), there is something of character which COULD emerge if only the right notes were to be blown into the flute. If secularism is to be all the rage, then fine, we'll call it 7th and 8th step, and NOT the Confessional, and send y'all off to a meeting somewhere, sotted as you are.
There is no great timing in being born on the crest of the 5th Wave, as we find ourselves here today. But what should hasten our sobriety is a hearty embrace of Reforms of all kind be they economic, political, cultural, scientific ... or Religious. But it does speak to the urgency of our peril, and handling things badly at this juncture in time will prove deadly for all time. Now if that doesn't sober things up for some, we can only wait for the Headless Horsemen to arrive and take our medicine then. You see, there is a Sunnyside to all of this as well.
A Presidential Ban, on the first day in Office, of Oxycontin and Percoset might set the Moose straight, as it is ferociously obvious that neither drug is either 'safe or effective' in it's practical application. Send the Hillbilly Junkies to work, paint brush in hand and see how well they paint the house. The Three Stooges would do better and be more enlivening, but good clean work for a populace sotted as they are, is the only fair remedy. Power lines failing aloft, should be properly grounded in crushed recycled plastic ... in a CCC kind of way. Anyone can dig a ditch and fill it up, right?
You 'work' your way off of a Fifth Wave, you don't merely jump because there are no more floors to climb in the City's skyscrapers. The Government cannot exist solely by playing a zero sum game. The dollar will need to be crushed and then the economic engine will be sparked. This has been an oversight for so many years it is getting plain boring repeating it over decades in time. We are NOT the center of the world, economically. So why are we priced as such? And to the detriment of all?
I am a confirmed Independent in my voting practices, and a Christina in my faith, yet it troubles me to see religion an dpolitics mix. I am aware that such has been the case for most of human history: pharohs of Egypt were god-incarnations, the kings of western Europe were divinely appointed, and the elected leaders of this country swear to uphold the Constitution 'so help me God". Nonetheless, the public intermingling of religion and politics troubles me. I am aware of a dichotomy in my own thining. I want Nativity scenes on the courthouse lawn at Christmas and I like a cross there at Easter, but I don't want religious dogma to inform and influence political decisions. As I have stated in previous comments on other articles, religion is largely about power and has little to do with the practice of faith. As an American who has little trust in the powerbrokers of government, the idea of power millenia old harnessed to the corrupt practices of political power in this country scares me silly, and I don't care if it comes from the left or the right.
That said, the idea of people of profound faith exercising political power gives me hope that they are less likely to be seduced by the very real temptations of power that people of little or no faith in those same positions. Perhaps it is time people of faith acknowledge the shaping of their character by their beliefs. People make decisions out of their character, their perceptions of duty and integrity and honor. While it is possible for a person of faith and honor to make bad decisions, it is far less likely that he or she will make those decisions out of personal greed or fear or insecurity if his/ her faith is part of the bedrock of his/her character.
As a second-generation Atheist, I am bothered by the nation's obsession with all things religious. Evil is committed by the religious and non-religious alike. I understand why people enjoy religious practice, and also that it is hard for some people to accept our biological limitations and eventual death. If the renewal of "faith" in the Democratic party means that people are going to be more open, and more comfortable being themselves, then that is well and good. If it inspires them to volunteer, be satisfied with the small things, be kinder, then that's wonderful~ Do whatever you want, just don't force your belief in the supernatural onto me through sneaky legislation and moral grandstanding.
Re: Magicman, to those of us who live in chronic and constant pain, the only remedies are pharmaceutical in nature. Banning a substance because some people misuse it, is like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. You do not solve the problems of chronic pain, by banning the very substances that control it for most people.
That being said, I found Mr. McCurry's piece most enlightening. He stated what I have known all along, that the hijacking of "faith and G-d," by the Far Right Wing Nut Republicans made absolutely no sense to those of us who were brought up in the tradition of social justice and activism in the church.
Our country is not a one religion country as we have been hammered with by the Far Right Wing Nut, Neo-conservatives.
We are a big tent country with many faiths and no faith, we have no state sponsored religion to count on, for moral guidance and should not. The framers of the Constitution saw to it that our country would be free from the stain of a single religion and no one can change that. But not only did they free us from the idea of a state sponsored religion, they also gave us the room to be free from religion taking over the public forum as has happened with the Republican Party.
Without doubt, the last election was lost by the Republican Party because of their bowing to the "base" of their party. The Far Right Wing Nuts have tried to hijack both political parties, yet have not succeeded with the Democratic Party for one simple reason, there is no room in the Democratic Party for such strident and legalistic followers of the Wing Nuts that make up most Christian faiths.
Sharing one's faith, should be a private and considered matter. The obvious sharing of one's faith, as we have seen in the Republican Party, is shameful and reprehensible to say the least and I for one am glad that there is a shift going on in the Republican Party back towards the party of yesteryear.
Not the neo-conservative brand of political mudslinging that has occurred in the last 30 years but a more moderate and reasoned approach to government and the governance of our country.
In this I can only be grateful that Sen. McCain did lose the election, for the idea of Sarah(the dumbest bunny on the planet)Palin being one heartbeat away from the presidency scared me to no end and hopefully there will be no repeat of the kind of attack dog politics that she surrounded herself with.
I don't believe Obama has a deep religious faith at all, and it disturbs me that he's catering to that superstitious element of the American population. I think he calculatingly signed up for a membership in the Christian club when he landed in Chicago because he had major political ambitions and knew that he could attract the religious voters that way. I'm not implying that Jesus or Mohammad or Abraham have nothing of value to say to present-day Americans--they certainly do--it's just that wedding religion to government should continue to be a no-no in our secular society. Separation of church and state is an important democratic precept, and not just for those of us who are atheists and agnostics. Church-based social activism can be a force for good (MLK and the civil rights movement) or evil (megachurch pastors and their anti-gay, anti-choice agenda). Using religion to sell politics can all too easily blow up in everyone's faces.
The great tradition of the abolitionists, the works of Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton, the example of Mahatma Gandhi, and the struggles of Martin Luther King Jr... these folks were never forgotten, just misplaced in our cultural memory... Maybe now, we can be "not blue state Americans, not red state Americans, but just Americans..." Indeed, true faith does not rule by money or power or party affiliation, but governs by awakening men's conscience, and by setting a good example... Or, as a wise man once said, "Give unto Caesar, what is Caesar's".
Hi Photoshock:
You missed the Trojan Horse I was proposing. Oxycontin is an 'apex' drug in the sense that everyone knows about it, that being the cause for it's demand. If you are secure in the knowledge that it won't cause greater death as a consequence of it's popularity, then by all means encourage the population to die off. It is currently 'Christmas', so killing off the 'surplus population' might be all the rage in the Dicken's Household that you seem to want to construct. It is not the only painkiller on the market, but simply because it is preferred by addicts should cause some to pause, you being of course the exception.
My uncle actually ran J&J for some time, so I will give you his advice to all of his family members about prescription drugs and painkillers in particular. "Never, ever, ever ,ever, use prescription drugs or painkillers unless your life depends upon them." To give you an example, I played Football for far too many years, a pint sized halfback who liked to ram opponents with his head. As a result of that brilliant idea, I have pain in the back of my neck nearly everyday. Some days it is nearly unbearable. But I do not take any prescription drugs or painkillers to remedy the situation. I simply suspend myself upside down to relieve the pressure. If it gets really bad, I take aspirin. But that is the sole use of Drugs in this house, that being directly from the horse's mouth. I have no problem listening to the advice of an uncle who graduated 4th in his Harvard Law Class and ran a Pharmaceutical Company for so many years. You, however, might think otherwise after talking to your doctor, but that's a loaded deck of cards by design.
If the Obama Administration is going to be about change, a few changes might prove safe and effective. One of those changes might include attitudes about prescription drugs and their danger to society. As a political tactic, it would prove fruitful to send the message to America that even if the addict doesn't care about his life, his President still does. It would also go a long way towards altering the debate about DEA efforts that are the most mindless imaginable in the War Against Drugs. I assure you the greater damage is of the Prescription variety, not the hemp toting shaman that was discovered in China just the other day, dating back 2,700 years.
Somehow, I have to wonder exactly what religion has to do with governing a secular country. The constitution and the founding fathers went to great pains to protect us from religion of any kind having a say in how this country was governed. History has shown that government with a religious foundation can not be trusted to protect the rights of individuals, and especially if those individuals are not of the majority belief. More harm is done by the exclusionary activities of true believers than can be remedied by the good works done by religious activities.
Religion has crept into governance over the years. Churches unlike any other organization do not pay taxes, do not have to follow employment rules, can lobby without oversight and force others to bow to their particular perversion of morality. They are exclusionary by their very nature, and continuously interfere in the daily lives of those who choose to follow another path. To force others who have other beliefs to follow a religiously contrived pathway is no more moral than slavery.
I have to disagree. We are not "God's New Israel". The US is a secular (that means nonreligious) country. You can believe anyway you like, Christian, Jainian, Hindu, Bhuddist, Animist, Shinto, agnostic, FSM, or atheist,. It doesn't make any difference what your particular brand of magic is. As long as you don't murder, hurt, steal from or force someone to do something they don't want you are free to have any belief you would like. How would you feel if forced to celebrate the way of The Flying Spaghetti Monster and holidays?
Its strange how so many can allow unsubstantiated belief to blind them to reality. I have no problem with believing just don't let it interfere with governing and living, and don't try to force me to follow your mythology.
There are many -- SO MANY -- reasons to keep a separation between Church and State. The most important reason is the nature of human nature itself. God seems to understand this. After being singled out and saved from the devastation of the Great Flood, Noah and his family go back to being, basically, nasty as they wanted to be. God states -- in Genesis, the book the Christians put first in their Bible -- "Men are wicked in their hearts." God realizes that God's very own creation -- humankind -- consists of utterly selfish, short-dighted, vengeful and petty creatures. In this respect, pastors and politicians are no different from their respective flocks. All have fallen short of the glory, as they say.
If any of these selfish, short-sighted, vengeful and petty creatures would study human history, it would be painfully obvious that the union of Church with State only produces a most cruel and vindictive State, and a State with the power of God behind it. Gee, don't you miss the Crusades? Don't you long to see people burned at the stake, burned in public so that all can watch and smell the incinerating flesh of fellow humans as we did during the Inquisition? Wasn't that an inspiring time for humanity? Hey! Let's round up some witches and hang 'em! That draws a community together, if only out of fear that one who recoils from God's will about hanging witches will be discovered to be a witch and therefore suitable for hanging!
I was raised Republican and Christian, but my parents went to their graves irate about the take-over of their party by the self-described Christian Right. My parents thought -- and I agree -- that adhering to a secular rule of law is the best way to create a society in which all are free to worship as they choose -- or choose not to worship at all. As a family and as individuals, we prayed and sang, read our Bibles for ourselves, educated ourselves in matters spiritual and secular, and performed works for the poor -- especially the poor in spirit, otherwise known as the Christian Right. I vote Democrat now -- I have been unable to cast a good-faith vote for a Republican in many long years.
What has this group created with the voting power unleashed by pastors, pastors with no regard for the secular laws that created this great country? We have waged war against innocent and powerless Iraquis. We routinely torture enemy combatants (in defiance of international treaties that we have signed and in which we used to hold credence). We participate in "rendition," the euphemistic phrase which conceals the horror of snatching people off the streets, spiriting them away to be tortured in secret by despots that this nation -- in thrall to the so-called Christian Right -- has created and maintained. We are raping the environment; Sarah Palin's minions chanting "Drill, Baby, Drill!!" appeared as bystanders to a gang rape of America's wildlife "refuges" and unique geographic heritage sites. We deny birth control and family planning to women in Third World countries who really do suffer when they give birth. We have replaced history, math, and science with the Bible's history, math, and science and our students are doing ever more poorly in every international measurement of academic achievement.
Pray about it, people. I know I do. I pray that the so-called Christian Right staggers and falls before they ruin this country. I will resolutely refuse to vote for any politician who wears religion too prominently or too smugly.
I don't think that government should give taxpayer money to churches. To many churches want to convert you even though they say that isn't true. If the mega churches are a sign of the new way churches are than that isn't the way I see jesus and his gifts to the world. These mega churches preach wealth is OK yet they really don't help the poor people. No I don't see these evangelica churches are here for the good of individuals they are trying to convert to their faiths.
" . . . the moral teachings of religion". Hmmmmm. That hasn't worked out so well for the last ten thousand years or so (google "jihad", "shunning", "the inquisition", "proposition 8", "wahabi", "fair-game", "clitorectomy" for examples). I propose that a citizen's right to swing their bronze-age sky-god (no matter how well-intentioned) ends where another citizen's civil rights begin.
Of course we are the New Israel. And just like the Old Testament Israel, we come from someplace else and slaughtered the native inhabitants and took over. If there's morality in that, it certainly isn't the type you think it is.
Religion sucks. Religion in politics sucks even worse. Please keep your gods out of my business. I don't believe in them and I never will. I don't need them to lead an ethical life, I have the golden rule, which is all you need. I don't need to believe in fairytales like virgins giving birth (can't happen) or people rising from the dead (can't happen).
Pathetic, backwards, delusional, disturbing, irresponsible.
Religious argumentation is completely unacceptable in discussions of how to set public policy, whether one agrees with the positions being supported or not.
You could write a 1,000 word article praising religious interferences with the government, or a 10,000 word article on that topic and still, blurring the line between church and state would be anti-constitutional.
The religious supporters of Proposition 8 are convinced with every fibre of their being that they did their god's work. Here comes an essayist on The Daily Beast, congratulating them. Pfui.
And, how are you going to end childhood hunger in America by 2015 if you can't have logical discourse over how to achieve that goal? Part of achieving it will most certainly have to include fewer births to poor teenage mothers. But if the religious attitudes towards birth control, reproductive rights and sex education have any role in shaping public policy, clearly it will be harder to eliminate childhood hunger.
With no rancor but with firm insistence, I ask Mike McCurry to reconsider his position until he understands the reasonableness, wisdom and not least of all, constitutionality of keeping religious faith private.
Speaking eloquently about one's faith is not the same thing as being religious. Obama is an eloquent speaker.
People need to shut up about their faith. I don't care and it doesn't matter with respect towards governance. I want someone who is intelligent and competent, not 'religious'.
Of all those who chose to write something on this page, you are most probably the only one who actually knows Mr. Obama. Thank you for speaking about him and his faith, and thank you for speaking about yours. I do not confuse faith and government, but I do see that in a free society, even those who work in government are allowed to both have faith and speak about it.
What nonsense.
Religion has done more harm than good by any standard I respect. People convinced that morality comes from a belief in god are ignoring the human condition. As a child who grew up in an atheist family, we were taught to not lie, steal, cheat etc., and racial slurs were unheard of in our home. Not because some church preached it, simply because it was the proper and decent way to live.
Nothing I've seen since then has convinced me the religious have any higher standards than I. Actually, it's been the opposite.
Notice how religious people profess a faith and atheist say angry, ugly things? It seems venom and bile fill their inner emptiness.
I hate to return to this essay; to repeatedly comment or reference this article gives the topic too much power. Yet the notion of political parties "finding God" (!!!!!) is deeply disturbing to me. I tend to distrust ANYONE who talks too much about his or her relationship with God. When people do this, I immediately assume the worst. I think this person is probably covering for some personal weirdness. I also think the person is trying to present himself or herself as God's or Jesus' "Best Friend." I also think this person will try to get me to ignore what I know or to fail to investigate my suspicions or to drop my honest objections or reactions to the person's message, on the grounds that I should not antagonize this Diety who loves him or her so personally. These confessions of faith tend to set the speaker in a position of judgement -- God and he or Jesus and she will now weigh and measure MY relationship with this Higher Power.
It is common for today's so-called Christians to whine and to wail about "being punished for expressing their faith" to the secular (liberals) who have been "holding them down" and "laughing at them." Brothers and Sisters, I have listened in on the so-called Christian TV programs, the so-called Christian radio programs, the giant "Christian" megachurch sabbath gatherings and I know that you are lying about the rest of us. You are the scoffers! You are the megalomaniacs! I have heard your pastors assure you that you and your buddy Jesus are going to spend eternity together in a gated resort community, watching the "Liberals" burn in an eternal lake of fire.
Matthew 23 says it all: Woe to you hypocrites!
Hmmmn. This is kind of sad. "God's New Israel" actually explains a few things about American Character. It's a worthy read for those interested in perhaps understanding how this stuff works. It is also the hinge pin that McCurry is talking about.
Bravo Banjo1. That is the entire point. "You will know them by the fruit that they bear". Merrry Christmas Banjo!
Our primary enemy-de-jour believes they have God on their side. The gambit becomes much more interesting when both warring sides rely on, within their cultural context, identical blessings. Whose God allows them to blink first?
Thank you.
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